Rescue operation under way in India for 127 people missing after shipwreck off Mumbai during the passage of Cyclone Tokte.
Two Indian Navy ships and helicopters are involved in the search.
The ship, which was carrying 273 people, was swept away yesterday, Monday, by strong winds blowing off the west coast of India. A total of 127 people are missing, while 146 passengers were rescued under very difficult weather conditions, as the navy clarified in a post on Twitter.
Rescue operations will continue throughout the day, the Ministry of Defense announced, despite the bad weather.
At least 20 people have been killed so far since last night, and more than 200,000 are estimated to have been evacuated from their homes in India by the Tokte pass, which was downgraded this morning to a severe tropical storm, according to reports. the AMPE.
This extremely severe tropical storm is accompanied by winds blowing at a speed of 185 kilometers at the time, according to the Meteorological Service of India, and arrived last night in the state of Gujarat.
The worst tropical storm to hit the region in decades has claimed the lives of the western Indian states of Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, with strong winds sweeping away many makeshift homes, uprooting trees and cutting down electricity. .
Tokte hits India at the time the country is facing a severe second wave of the new coronavirus epidemic, which causes the daily death of about 4,000 people in the country. Hospitals are full, health centers are depleted, and there is a shortage of oxygen and medicines for patients.
Maharashtra authorities closed Mumbai airport for several hours yesterday and asked residents to stay in safe places after they were forced to evacuate 580 COVID-19 patients from three campaign hospitals on Sunday to transport them “to a safer place”. ”.
About 12,500 people were evacuated from the coastal areas of Maharashtra in anticipation of the Tokte operation.
In the state of Gujarat, nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, as have all COVID-19 patients treated in buildings within a five-kilometer radius of the coast.
The authorities of this state paid efforts to avoid any power outages at about 400 hospitals and 41 oxygen plants in the 12 coastal areas that were expected to be hit hard by the tropical storm.
State Prime Minister Vijay Rupani said more than 1,000 hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in coastal cities were equipped with generators.
“In addition to the 1,000 tonnes of oxygen needed daily in Gujarat, an additional 1,700 tonnes of stock has been created and can be used in an emergency,” he said.
Sanitary protocols against the new coronavirus, such as the use of a mask, keeping a safe distance and the use of disinfectants, will be observed in shelters for those who have been evacuated from their homes, state officials said.
Gujarat, which has officially recorded 9,000 deaths from COVID-19 (the death toll is believed to be lower than the actual number, as is the case across the country, according to experts), has also suspended its COVID-19 vaccination campaign for two days. . Mumbai did the same for one day.
THE India, which has a population of 1.3 billion, recorded more than 4,100 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and nearly 280,000 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number to almost 25 million, double that of April 1st. Also with the new deaths, the total death toll in the country from the pandemic rose to more than 250,000.
In May 2020, again in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, more than 110 people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Amman, which struck eastern India and Bangladesh.
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